Film Fetish Friday: Mientras Duermes, 7 Days in Havana, Tous Ensemble

Film Fetish Friday: Mientras Duermes, 7 Days in Havana, Tous Ensemble

Jul 20, 2012 |  by  |  Art, Event
About the author
As a freelance journalist, Anouk (26) usually writes about what other people do or like. In her precious spare time she watches arthouse films. Not a few. A lot, thanks to her trusted Cineville pass. Here she can finally share her film-fetish with the world.

To watch or not to watch? I will tour around Amsterdam’s cinemas and answer this crucial question every Friday. Without mercy, of course. Sucky movies will be slaughtered, cinematographic pearls will be appreciated as such. Or the other way around. After all, good taste is in the eye of the beholder.

Mientras Duermes

I have to say that this is not such an interesting film week. If you’re not into Batman, that is. For those people there is Mientras Duermes (while you’re slleping), a gloomy film about a janitor in a appartment building in Barcelona. César, the janitor, is depressed so he wants everyone else to be misarable too. Especially the light hearted Clara (Marta Etura) has a lot to endure. Without her knowing, César lies next to her in bed while she sleeps. Pretty scary stuff. If you liked the Spanish horror film [REC], you will definitely like Mientras Duermes as well. Director Jaume Balagueró made his new film more subtle. The build up tension will make it impossible for you to relaxt for one minute during this story. And it doesn’t help that actor Luis Tosar (También la Lluvia) looks so dark.

Watch this film in Cineville’s Kriterion.

7 Days in Havana

7 Days in Havana is based on a original idea. Seven film makers went to Havana to make a short film, all the seven stories are cut together and there you have a 125 minutes feature film. The result isn’t that original. The film contains a lot of well known clichés about Cuba: rum, music, old American cars and cigars. Yeah yeah yeah. According to Het Parool there are only two story lines that make the film interesting. Gaspar Noé (Irréversible) tells the story about a voodoo ritual which should cure a girl from her lesbian feelings. Elia Suleiman (The Time That Remains) shows us the standstill in Cuban society. 7 Days in Havana doesn’t sound like a must see, but when it keeps raining in Amsterdam I’ll probably want to be in Havana for a while. At least for two hours.

Watch this film in Cineville’s Cinecenter. Also in Pathe (Tuschinski).

Tous Ensemble

I didn’t mention it above (because I knew I was going to mention it here): Daniel Brühl (Goodbye Lenin) not only has a part in Tous Ensemble, but also in 7 Days in Havana. When saw both trailers I came to think: wow, Daniel can do anything. Language wise, I mean. He speaks German (obviously), English (of course), French (surprise) and Spanish (wow!). Got to respect that, considering most Germans don’t even speak English very well. I once told a German guy I saw Die Hard 4 and he didn’t get what I was talking about. After a while he jelled: ‘Ooo, Stierb Langsam!’ (dude..) Anyway, back to Tous Ensemble. It reminded me a bit of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. Five good (literally) old friends decide they want to live together, because they don’t want to end up in an old peoples home. What is Daniel doing in here? Well, he is a antropology student that studies the group behaviour of the elderly. Jane Fonda is one of the elderly. It’s the first time since many many many years that she has played in a French film. So, that’s nice. There’s not a lot to tell about the story of Tous Ensemble. You’ll just be entertained by nice characters that struggle with their age in their own way.

Watch this film in Cineville’s The Movies. Also in Pathe (City and Tuschinski).

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